Antonio Sarcuni

I come from a small city, Matera, in the South of Italy and my love toward nature and animals (mostly dogs and wolves) prompted me to move to Parma to study Natural Sciences with a thesis on the behavioural features of dogs in early age.

Then I decided to stay in Parma to continue my studies and examine in depth animal behaviour. So now I’m attending the second year of Master Degree in “Ecology and Nature Conservation”. For my Master thesis I wanted to focus on wolf behaviour, that’s why I applied for a project at WSC. This is the only place where I could study wolf behaviour, being very close to them.

So here I’m following two projects. The first one concerns social features and behavioural strategies in wolves and dogs, using a treadmill. This is a very important study, since nothing like this has ever been done, and I’m very happy to be part of the team. The other project for my Master thesis investigates the connection between vocalizations (and so the emotional features) and heart rate.

I’m very glad to be here, because the kind of research carried out by the WSC helps to better understand dog and wolf ethological features, and even differences and similarities between them. This allows us to get a better knowledge of these animals and improve our relationship with our closest companion (the dog) and even the relationship between wolves ad humans in a natural environment, to reach a pacific coexistence without stereotypes and fears.

I’ve been here for only two weeks, but I have already collected a number of great experiences. Above all I think I’ll never forget my first walk in the woods so close to Amarok, or the night in which the silence was broken by a song, it was all the wolves of the WSC howling all together!